The strategic planning of "green infrastructure" (GI) in urban areas is actively promoted by the EU and Germany. In China, too, integrated spatial development planning is becoming a political and scientific focus with the establishment of the Ministry of Natural Resources in 2018. The benefits of green infrastructure can be seen in the strengthening of diverse ecosystem services (ES) and the implementation of nature-based solutions. In China and Germany, sustainable urban development is closely linked to the goals of climate protection and climate adaptation. Green infrastructure can contribute to both. The transfer of knowledge and methods into planning practice, considering the specific cultural, social and regional governance arrangements of both countries, is the challenge that the proposed project addresses.

The project started in 2018 with a 18-months ‘definition’ phase, followed by the ‘research & development’ phase, which will last until March 2025. An implementation phase may conclude the implementation efforts. The objectives of the project include:

• an overview of formal and informal instruments and institutions for introducing or supporting green infrastructure planning in an urban context,
• an innovative and spatial method for evaluating green infrastructure development in spatial planning, based on the latest research results on ecosystem services in urban areas,
• an OpenGIS-based toolbox for ES assessment and its trade-offs for different urban development and land use scenarios.

Landscape architects, gardeners and planners make our cities more beautiful by planning and realizing urban green and blue spaces, such as trees, flowerbeds, forests and meadows, ponds, creeks and lakes. Ideally, these spaces equipped with natural elements form a strategically planned network across the cities, the so-called Green Infrastructure. Legal requirements, sustainable development goals and government strategies for climate protection and adaptation as well as the promotion of biodiversity are dependent on an efficient green infrastructure.

Green Infrastructure can do more than just being beautiful. We, humans, benefit from ecosystems more than we normally realise. Green Infrastructure is made up of ecosystems that provide a wide range of services. For instance, trees mitigate air pollution and sequester carbon, desealing of paved surfaces attenuates urban flash floods, wise selection of species enhance pollination and stabilize ecosystems. Thanks to the concept of ecosystem services, we can systematically describe, map and quantify the benefits people obtain from nature.

As its name says, the project IMECOGIP focuses on the implementation of the ecosystem services concept in green infrastructure planning to strengthen the resilience of the Ruhr Metropolis and Chinese megacities. By recognising green infrastructure as a carrier of ecosystem services, IMECOGIP creates innovative methods for assessment, considering cultural, socio-economic, and climatic factors. The project develops expertise and comprehensive methods for planning green infrastructure in densely populated urban areas and transfer it into planning practices in both regions. IMECOGIP fosters practical implementation research through collaboration with developers and stakeholders in Germany and China.

EnhancES. The IMECOGIP toolbox for modelling, mapping, assessing and enhancing ecosystem services

To support planning, Ruhr-University Bochum and Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development in Dortmund (ILS) have developed - together with our friends from the Tongji University - EnhancES, a toolbox for modelling, mapping and quantifying of currently eleven ecosystem services of existing and planned green and blue infrastructure. There are more to come. During the planning of green infrastructure, planners, stakeholders and politicians should anticipate and optimise the ecosystem services. We should know before, why exactly we choose which combinations of green elements. EnhancES is based on the CICESv5.1 classification scheme, which provides a comprehensive and widely accepted list of ES, their characteristics, specific benefits and examples. The selection of models (Tab. 1) followed discussions among planners, experts and scientists from Germany and China experienced in urban planning and environmental analysis.

Development logic

The users input biotope, soil and climate information into EnhancES, the software assigns necessary additional parameters, models the ecosystem services, and presents them in maps. Computing time is minimal, in order to facilitate evaluating optional plans or larger areas. EnhancES deals with a hierarchy of land use/land cover and biotope type classes that allows for a sequential assessment of the design process. Secondary data that EnhancES does not automatically assign to biotope types, such as landscape metrics in parks, are automatically calculated from the provided geospatial data within the main ES models.

Once finalized, EnhancES will be open source, allowing users to adapt their own datasets to their area of interest by either translating their own LULC/biotope types to the default ones or by tailoring their own databases, respectively.

Application fields in China and in Germany

EnhancES leads the way to a shift in mind-set. It broadens the perspective from traditional nature conservation in demarcated reserves to the assessment and improvement of ecosystem services in urban and peri-urban areas with diverse land use - wherever possible. 

In Germany, we use EnhancES to decide between competing design plan for new city districts, for the urban renewal programs, for the planning of green belts, and for ecosystem accounting. In China, we see a great potential for additional applications, for instance for territorial spatial planning, for the Guidelines for the Construction of Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality, and for Climate Adaptation Plans, such as the National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy 2035.

EnhancES can be useful for various purposes in areas that strive for more sustainability:

• Screen your area and map the ecosystem services provision. Analyze its strengths and weaknesses. Assess spatial inequalities and inequities. Justify action plans for enhancements.
• Monitor and document temporal changes in ecosystem services provisioning.
• Compare planning variants and decide where and by which measures to optimize your plan to let nature work for the citizens’ benefit.
• Develop your own ecosystem services standards that are specific for your city or region.
• Broaden the choice of sustainability indicators complementary to nature conservation requirements.
• Enhance participatory processes by making ecosystem services transparent to the informed citizens.
• Supplement gains or losses in the stock of natural assets by considering ecosystem services.
• Plan nature-based solutions based on ecosystem services.
• Justify and support funding applications by highlighting the benefits of ecosystem services.

Researchers present their results at the second SURE status conference in Bangkok, Thailand. How can sustainable urban development and climate adaptation of urban areas succeed?

Active exchange at the second SURE status conference: 100 researchers from the ten collaborative projects met with their partner organisations to network and to intensify the transfer of research results in the participating regions.

Conference description

Following the appointment of Prof. Dr. Harald Zepp to the scientific advisory board of the "Technology Innovation Center for Landscape Eco-Restoration in Greater Metropolitan Areas" of the "Ministry of Natural Resources" of the People's Republic of China and two successful field research phases, another important milestone was reached in the IMECOGIP project. Together with five Chinese colleagues from Tongji, East China Normal and Shanghai University and the China Academy of Sciences, a three-day workshop was held in the Ruhr region between October 27 and 30.

At the kick-off meeting on the premises of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Zeche Zollverein in Essen, the first day focused on an interdisciplinary and practical exchange of state-of-the-art methods for assessing ecosystem services in green infrastructure with representatives from administration and project practice (see program). On the second day, excursions led by experts (including the Zollverein industrial forest, Emscher conversion, Hugo biomass park) provided insights into current best practice in green infrastructure and the associated ecosystem services in the Ruhr metropolis.

The expert knowledge from science and administrative practice flowed into the workshop units that followed on both days. The interdisciplinary range of expertise of the Chinese delegation, consisting of landscape architects and planners, natural and environmental sciences and social sciences, was particularly evident here. While the first session focused on the evaluation of selected ecosystem services depending on the respective land use, the second session was devoted to jointly determining the survey methods to be used and discussing complementary work packages until the next workshop in Shanghai.